Chū
Chu (酎, Chū) is an ally of Yusuke Urameshi and the former leader of Team Rokuyukai during the Dark Tournament. He is voiced by Norio Wakamoto in the original Japanese and Kent Williams in the FUNimation English dub. Appearance Chu has a well built, muscular body and an excellent posture when he is not drinking. He is a very tall individual, towering over most of the people he meets with at least four inches to spare. Chu has a long, blue mohawk with a sort of rat-tail styled back hair. The two ends of his hair are wrapped up with a red ribbon. He has a messy and rather short goatee and mustache, as well as two green-striped tattoos under his eyes. He wears black boots with a knife tucked into each and a blue sleeveless shirt, both fur lined. He also has olive green pants and a red belt. He speaks with an Austrailian accent in the English dub (possibly due to his similar appearance to Wez, the Australian warrior-biker from the movie Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.) While in the original Japanese version he merely speaks with a thick, masculine, but otherwise drunken speech pattern. Personality Chu is a serious drunk, stumbling into the ring and attempting to fight, surprising all of Team Urameshi. However, this is a ploy for him to reveal his true power. While under the influence, he is rather cocky, and also rather fond of the ladies as seen by his flirting with Koto. Like Yusuke, he has a lust for battle and is willing to go to extremes to make the fight more interesting, such as his addition of the unorthodox "knife-edge death match." After being defeated by him, Chu desires to fight Yusuke again in a rematch, and later becomes a valuable ally and friend to his former enemy, due in large part to his fighting prowess and honorable nature. In a flashback, Chu is shown to be an all-around good guy as seen in a flash back when he saved his teammate Rinku from some demon thugs prior to the Dark Martial Arts Competition. Synopsis Dark Tournament Saga Chu first appears after Zeru is defeated by Hiei. He explains to the audience that the only reason he wasn't in the first matches was because he lost at Paper, Rock, Scissors earlier which his team decide their roster. The smell of Chu's alcohol wakes up Yusuke, and the two step into the ring. Yusuke insults Chu's drunken fighting style, which leads to Chu to releasing his unique spirit energy, before starting to stumble around the ring at top speed. Though Yusuke manages to block his first attack, Chu continues to attack with such speed only Hiei can see. Yusuke manages to survive the attacks, and tells Chu to beware of his spirit gun, firing off a warning shot into the air. Afterwards, Chu drinks the most potent alcohol in all of Demon World , Ogre Killer, and his aura begins to glow wildly. He uses a technique similar to the spirit gun, but with such a large radius, Yusuke was forced to use his Spirit Gun Double attack to counter. At this point, all of Yusuke's ammo is gone. With Chu's energy reserves exhausted as well energy as well, Chu proposes the two decide to fight a knife-edge death match. After a slight delay, during which time Yusuke and Chu laugh at their helplessness, the Tournament Committee gives the change in rules a collective nod. The two hit each other back and forth, but don't budge from their location with their rear feet of the knife edge. The more hits, the more their feet bleed. They attempt to end the fight with a colossal headbutt, and Yusuke stands victorious after Chu's ten count is up. Yusuke concludes that his new rival Chu is more suited to tapping kegs than tapping heads. Chu comes to and honorably asks Yusuke to finish him off, as they agreed to fight a deathmatch. Yusuke cheerfully refuses, promising Chu a rematch in the future, and so the two become friends. He later shows up with Rinku and members of Team Masho Yusuke's team defeated to support Yusuke in the final's. After the tournament finals, Chu himself blasts a boulder out of the way of Yusuke and his friends so they can escape the collapsing stadium. Three Kings Saga During the Saga of the Three Kings, Chu trains under Genkai to become an A+ Class demon and joins the Makai Tournament; though automatically surrenders in the preliminaries to a demon girl named Natsume who's strength is upper S class, on whom he has a crush. After he surrenders he asks her out, but she says he's too weak. It's at that point he says that in less than 2 years he would become stronger than her. Later he is seen training with Natsume who asks him if he's given up, at which he shouts no. Later during a conversation with Kujou she states the Chu is getting stronger all the time, and that he really could reach her level in less than 2 years. Kujou then asks her if she would date him then. She responds saying no, and states that she isn't interested in weak men. However, when Kujou insults Chu she is quick to defend him. His silhouette can be seen in the OAV, along with Jin and Suzuka, moments before the second Demon World Tournament begins, along with two featureless shadows that are presumably Touya and Shishiwakamaru. Abilities and Skill When he is first introduced, Chu is equal in power to a C-class demon. After training with Genkai, he becomes an upper-A-class. After he loses to Natsume in the Demon World Tournament, and begins training with her. He is well on his way to becoming upper-S-class. Techniques/Moves *Chu possesses extreme physical strength, especially in his fists and head, which was able to shatter a mountain. It is possible Chu uses his demon energy to enhance his strength in a manner similar to Yusuke's Spirit Punches, only focusing it on his head in his case. *'Sui Ken' (醉拳, literally translated as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zui_Quan Drunken Fist]): A type of fighting style where your skill in hand-to-hand combat actually increases with the more alcohol you drink. After drinking Ogre Killer (Onigoroshi in the original Japanese Version) the most potent sake in the Demon Realm, Chu's skin darkens and his hair turns purple, a likely sign of increased power. While Chu is in this powered-up state, his aura eclipses the stadium and Hiei comments that alcohol can be seen mixed in with his demon energy. :*By drinking a large amount of alcohol, Chu can mix it with his demon energy in order to generate a ball of energy to use as an attack, akin to the spirit gun, only orange in color. Chu throws this blast, like a baseball pitcher throws a fastball, when he uses this technique. This technique was never named in either the original Japanese or the English dub, but the larger version is called the Block-Buster in the English manga and Ogre Killer in the video game Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament. Chu seems to prefer hand to hand combat over this technique, as he is not seen using it in the Makai tournament or during Genkai's training. :*The size of the blast can be controlled, as well. He can drastically increase the size of the ball of energy. In the video this attack is known as Ogre Boulder in Yu Yu Hakusho Dark Tournament. *'Knife Edge Death Match': By stabbing two knives in the ground, both fighters put the bottom of their foot on the blade. During the match, the two contestants pummel each other with there bare fists. The only rule is no one can step outside the line made by those knives; if they do, it's sudden death, and no weapons are allowed. *Chu is also capable of refining his energy into a Barrier to defend himself and others against falling rocks. It even allows him a limited type of flight. Trivia *Chu's name literally translates to Sake, as a reference of him being a drunken fighter. *During the Makai Tournament, Chu has a Rei-Ki of 121,600. *Contrary to popular belief, Chu and the other 5 fighters recruited for Yomi are not A Class Demons and are actually S Class. This is proven as Shachi, Hokushin and Kiri, S Class Makai Generals have Rei-Ki of 36,000-89,500 while Jin, Chu, Toya, Shishiwakamaru, Suzuka and Rinku all have Rei-Ki of over 100,000. *The edited dub omitted the details of Chu's fighting style of using alcohol for his Sui Ken and instead showed his Sui Ken abilities without any explanation. *Along with Jin, Chu makes the most appearances in video games among Kurama's Six Demons, presumably due to their rivalries with Yusuke. They were also the first two guesses Kuwabara made when he wondered who their new teammate was. References Category:Characters Category:Demons